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Scientific Kitchen: Butter Lab

Saturday, May 31, 2014
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

In this comprehensive guide to the science of butter and all its variations, you’ll discover how fat globules, foam, and plasma are essential to the process of making this complex, delicious spread. Examine this soft matter physics phenomenon through NYU professor David Grier’s video microscope. Ask NYU chemist Kent Kirshenbaum why butter that has been fermenting in the ground for a year (or a lifetime) is considered a delicacy. And taste the best and most delicious ways to manipulate and use it thanks to pastry chef and ICE creative director, Michael Laiskonis. You’ll leave with your own handmade butter and an understanding of how and why that happened.

Age 21 and over only.

This program is part of the Scientific Kitchen Series – Intimate, hands-on, food-meets-science workshops behind the scenes at New York’s most exclusive kitchens and laboratories. 

Participants

Kent KirshenbaumChemist

Kent Kirshenbaum is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at New York University. He has appeared on the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, the Science Channel, the Discovery Channel, Sid the Science Kid (PBS), and at the Wellington-on-a-Plate Festival.

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David GrierPhysicist

David Grier is a physicist specializing in soft condensed matter physics. He is a professor of physics at NYU and has worked on new techniques to probe and manipulate the microscopic world—including using single beams of light imprinted with computer-designed holograms and developing methods of particle tracking.

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Michael LaiskonisPastry Chef

Michael Laiskonis was named creative director of New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education in 2012. Previously executive pastry chef at Le Bernardin for eight years, his pastry philosophy manifested itself in a style of desserts that balanced art and science, and contemporary ideas with classic.

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